ON LOVE; PART MCLXXXVI
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
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WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God
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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
In the last essay we continued with our discussion on the Master’s most misunderstood words saying that “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). These words have been at the center of the Christian experience from the early days of the church and have been a wedge between the Christian on the rest of the world for nearly as long. Within this idea that ONLY the Christian can KNOW God and that ALL other religions worship ‘strange’ gods, lies much of the reason that there IS such religious animosity in the world today and why the Christian has NOT advanced his thinking over the last 2000 years.
Over the last few posts we have explored the ideas of the first part of Jesus’ words here, words that ARE telling His apostles that He IS leaving them as a fellow man in this world, and that He will return to them to “receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” and this after telling them to “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:3, 1-2).
In the first part here the Master IS trying to inject calm into the situation as He prepares to tell them again what IS about to happen and this just after He admonishes the Apostle Peter for NOT understanding that He IS leaving them; the apostle IS yet seeing ONLY the carnal side of Jesus’ words. We should note here that in the midst of the dialog with His apostles, after the Apostle Judas leaves the group, IS more talk on Love, on agape, as the Master tells them “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples” (John 13:35). That the Master IS here speaking about the Love that they should have for “one another” DOES NOT detract from His teaching on Love for ALL but this idea has crept into Christian doctrine nonetheless.
The Master, seeing Peter’s reaction, continues with His words of calm and He reminds them that they DO KNOW that He IS the Christ and that they should trust in His words as they Trust in the words of God. We must remember here that ALL of these things the Master IS showing His apostles ARE new and unique, they have NOT been a part of the teaching nor His communication except for brief unexplained thoughts that Jesus conveys which ARE NOT understood. And that they still DO NOT understand IS the message that we should take from the opening of this fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel. The Master calms them with His words and then encourages them in saying that each of them has a place in “my Father’s house“, a place that will be prepared by the ultimate spiritual reality of His death and resurrection.
While doctrines point to heaven as “my Father’s house“, the greater reality of these words IS that they will be prepared as men in full realization of the Truth through His death and His resurrection; it IS in this that they come to KNOW….that He IS the Christ and that ALL of His words ARE Truth. We should understand that this IS a hard thing even for His apostles to grasp and to understand. And we should note here that as individuals we DO NOT KNOW what they DO think as they follow the Master in His brief time as a man here in this Earth.
We DO KNOW however that they DO NOT understand the import of His words and NOT ONLY here in the fourteenth chapter of John but throughout the gospels. On the one hand we can see that they KNOW something as they continue to follow Him but on the other we can see that they DO NOT fully understand just what it IS that they DO KNOW….the DO NOT have the full realization of His Truths which becomes the product of His death and His resurrection, events which open fully the eyes of His apostles. And while we can look at the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot as a part of the uncertainty and the doubt that may be the inner but carnal thoughts of His apostles, there IS more to this saga than doctrines can see and yet more that even the other apostles KNOW as IS reflected in the disdain for him found in their writings.
In the end they DO KNOW and realize the Truth and each of them speaks of this Truth according to their own personalities and their own proclivities which give us their individual views of both the historic and the spiritual events. Our point here IS that the Master understands the doubts and the confusion of His apostles and this we can see in His predictive warning to Peter and in His interaction with them in the Garden of Gethsemane. And, if we look closely, we can see as well that He KNOWS that in their hearts they still DO NOT understand as the final hour approaches; we read first Jesus words saying:
“I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? ” (John 16:28-31).
We should be able to see that His words here ARE NO different here than they were previously and that their claim of understanding, based on their doubt as expressed in ensuing events, IS NOT yet True. It IS rather the same as it was at another time when Jesus announced His own death. The Apostle Mark tells us of the apostles’ state of mind saying that “they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him” (Mark 9:32). The Apostle Luke shows us this same thing saying that “they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying” (Luke 9:45). As they approach the end we see Jesus’ simple response and understanding of their state of mind saying “Do ye now believe? “.
The realization of Truth by His apostles and the elimination of their doubt IS finalized in the Master’s death and resurrection and in the way in which He appears to them after He IS risen. While they had been with Jesus for some three years, we KNOW very little about the time that they spent together save for the narratives given us in the gospels. We KNOW that He does send them out in small groups and that they ARE able to teach and heal but we DO NOT KNOW the dynamics of how this IS so save for the doctrinal ideas gleaned from Luke’s words saying “he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases” (Luke 9:1).
The words rendered as gave, from the Greek word didomi, can take on several meanings and ideas and while doctrines see this as Jesus gave them this “power and authority” as one would give a thing to another, the reality IS found in the way that His teaching and His guidance gave them such. Such abilities come in KNOWING and for the apostles at this time they DO KNOW that they can DO such things. In this we should be able to see the way that KNOWING can be measured; here they KNOW that they can heal and have “power and authority over all devils” which can today be seen in terms of emotional and mental illnesses and NOT in the superstitious way of the past.
A greater measure of KNOWING IS shown to us in the Master’s words on moving the mountain; Mark shows us Jesus words here as “whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23). Here IS KNOWING without a doubt which we should see as the same idea that Matthew uses saying “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed” (Matthew 17:20) and then as “If ye have faith, and doubt not” (Matthew 21:21). Here we have a more universal view of KNOWING, a greater measure than the KNOWING required to heal and to have “power and authority over all devils“.
Can we see the point here? And can we see the reality of pistis and pisteuo, faith and believing, that function in the life of everyman by measure and work on most every level from the purely carnal to the most spiritual where Jesus tells us “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). Two things to consider here ARE first that the reality of “He that believeth on me” IS the reality of one who will accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. as Vincent shows us IS the deeper meaning of pisteuo or to “believeth on me“; and second that this IS that KNOWING that can surely move the mountain.
This IS the reality of KNOWING God and the measure of this that Jesus shows us in His saying on “greater works” IS a fullness of KNOWING that His apostles DO NOT have at the time that He says these words to them; again this IS evidenced by their questions. Here we should understand that while they have kept ALL His commandments and ARE living the Life of the True disciple of the Lord, they ARE NOT yet without doubt which IS the final hurdle that they must overcome and in this we can perhaps see the final idea that one has “overcome the world” (John 16:33), as Jesus tells us of Himself.
And perhaps here we can see the depth of being “born of God” which was a part of our discussion in the last essay. The Apostle John tells us that “whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). When we can see faith and believing, pistis and pisteuo, in terms of KNOWING and NOT the nebulous ideas of doctrine, we can then see that the reality of being “born of God” IS much more that that state that IS claimed by the doctrinal Christian; and we can understand that in its fullness one can Truly KNOW what the apostle means in saying that “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
There IS a rather wide gap between KNOWING as the apostles KNOW and their ability to translate such KNOWING into the heart so that the KNOWING overcomes the carnal mind and emotions….that IS that the KNOWING completely subdues the carnal proclivity to doubt that which IS beyond one’s True understanding. This sense of Truly KNOWING IS the final reality and the reason why the Master’s words ARE a constant teaching to both the apostles and those who read them today. His words ARE necessarily oblique; there IS NO worldly foundation for much of what He says and we should see here that it IS Jesus’ final act, His death and His resurrection, which form the convincing argument against the carnal proclivity of His apostles.
In this perhaps we can see a Truer idea behind the Apostle Paul’s words that have become the doctrinal substitute for the KNOWING by which one IS Truly “born again” and “born of God“. Paul tells us “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10) and if we can see this confessing and affirming in terms of the Inner man, the Soul, conveying to the heart the necessary measure of KNOWING and then his being able to express this KNOWING, we can then see a greater reality of one’s being Truly “born of God” in relation to the apostle’s words.
And we should see in this the reality of John’s words that tell us that “whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world“; we should try to see that so few have Truly “overcometh the world” while so many millions claim that they ARE “born again“. That these things ARE difficult to see and to understand IS clearly seen in the lives of the apostles and their slow and methodical rise from Jews, both secular and religious, to believers in the Truth of the Master from a spiritual perspective of KNOWING, to being able to express that KNOWING by their Love and their actions in this world. And we ARE the same in most every way except that in place of having the Master with us we have His words which, although they ARE given us by men, DO contain the seed of Truth which must grow in the Life of everyman.
As His words to His apostles create confusion and doubt in them so they should for us and it IS in our efforts to dispel this confusion and this doubt that we Truly learn the meaning of His words rather that the common doctrinal approach of selectively assuming that what He speaks IS clear. If His apostles, men who kept His words without fail while struggling to bring His Truth to fruition through their hearts and minds as expressions of certainty, can be Truly KNOWING and NOT understand the meaning of “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me“, how can mere men have claimed to understand His intent since the early church. And here again we must visit the reality of doctrinal thinking which claims to KNOW the literal ideas of obscure sayings while missing, or, better, ignoring the literal ideas of Jesus most clear words as those that form our trifecta of spiritual Truth; we read again:
- “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free“ (John 8:31-32).
- “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
- “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:21-24).
And this Truth IS also found in Love….in clearly expressed words that show us the meaning and the depth of agape from Jesus own words as well as the clearly expressed words of His apostles who tell us that this Love IS equivalent to the ideas of the trifecta, ideas of keeping His words. And agape IS the means by which men KNOW the reality of those “spiritual gifts” that ARE the objective of so many parts of the doctrinal church. For the equivalency we have Paul’s words from his Epistle to the Galatians saying “all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14) and here of course we should see that one word IS agape. While this IS clear, the apostle makes it yet more clear in our selection from Romans where we read again:
“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:8-11).
These ideas ARE clear yet the crux of them ARE ignored by the doctrinal church which chases after the gifts which Paul tells us ARE for naught without Love. While doctrinal thinkers see themselves as disciples and even apostles despite the fact that the very definition of a disciple IS given to us by Jesus, the reality of ALL these ideas continues to be missing . And while the doctrinal thinker sees himself as having what Paul calls for us charisma we should note that in the introductory idea to this theme the word IS NOT included; it IS only surmised to be the apostle’s meaning in several translations which read as “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant” (1 Corinthians 12:1).
Others show us these words as “matters of the spirit“, “spiritual things” and “things of the spirit” and here we should see the idea of “matters of the spirit” as the more appropriate idea as in our idea of things there IS NO relation to Spirit. And we should understand here that the Greek word that IS rendered as gift has its roots in charis which should always be understood in terms of grace while grace should be understood as ALL things that come from God. While doctrines see the idea of free attached to ALL ideas of charis based their interpretation of some of Paul’s words, the reality of charis IS better seen in terms of reward, an idea that comes from the Master’s words, again regarding Love.
The idea of free IS a doctrinal insertion and this perhaps because the idea of a gift requires its being free; and, if we can see charisma in terms of grace and understand that grace IS the reward or the wages of our expression of Love and our striving to keep His words, much of the doctrinal view will fall. Grace IS the natural flow of revelation and realizations that come as the reality of the Presence of God, His Truth that frees, and His Kingdom….ALL through the words of His trifecta. And such ARE the “spiritual gifts“: these ARE the natural flow of revelation and realization into the Life of the man who will keep His words according to the trifecta and, as the apostle tells us, they ARE nothing in the absence of one’s expression of Love as we read in Paul’s words. ALL else IS carnal in origin and in effect; reading the apostle’s words again we should see these ideas:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
| Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way |
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
We change our Quote of the Day today to the words from Solomon on Wisdom along with our thoughts on them from the original postings of them in In the Words of Jesus parts 46 and 556. These words ARE a testament to those things that we should be asking of the Lord and which are representative of the Holy Ghost. Wisdom, understanding and knowledge which will lead us to understanding the fear (reverence and respect and awe) of the Lord and the knowledge of God so that in this world we can understand righteousness and judgement and equity and be preserved by discretion and understanding. Thus are we in a position to treat everyone as we would want to be treated ourselves.
Since we are centered on the ideas of Wisdom today we offer the following from Proverbs as our Quote of the Day. Solomon, who is KNOWN for his Wisdom, which we read in the story of his Life was His gift from God, a gift that he receives because he does not want for the things of the world. But Solomon gains as well the things of the world in plenty and as his Life story proceeds we can see clearly that it is his Life in the world that is to his detriment. The wisdom however produces for us the writings of the Book of Proverbs and it is this that he is remembered for. His Life is interesting reading and is well documented in the Books of Kings and Chronicles.
….incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee (Proverbs 2:2-11).
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire,
Writer and Philosopher
